Catalogue 63 New Century Antiquarian Books Late Spring 2012

Catalogue 63 New Century Antiquarian Books Late Spring 2012

[1] BEAN, C.E.W. (editor).
The Anzac Book. Written and Illustrated in Gallipoli by the
Men of Anzac. London, Cassell and Co., 1916. Quarto, pp. xvi,
170 + frontispiece and ten other coloured plates, and one folding
plate, very numerous leaves of plates included in the pagination;
original publisher’s blue cloth with pictorial onlay by David
Barker, 1918 owner’s inscription on the endpaper; with the
inevitable cheap paper edge-tanning, an excellent, near fine
copy with like dustwrapper (clean split at the front flap fold),
with cut-out on the front panel framing the David Barker’s cover
illustration. $770
First edition, corrected issue, with the rare dustwrapper: one of the
most significant literary productions of the war and arguably one of
the key Australian books of the twentieth century.
This book was produced in the lines at Anzac Cove on Gallipoli in
1915. Virtually every contribution was written or drawn in the
trenches under fire. Perhaps initially just an exercise in maintaining
morale, The Anzac Book was the brain-child of C.E.W. Bean, the
official Australian war correspondent at the Front and future historian
of the war, who more than anyone else gave meaning and purpose to
the Australian experience of a senseless European war.
Myth-making, actively encouraged by Bean (who censored many of
the pieces submitted which he considered inappropriate for his
purposes), grew quickly from the Gallipoli experience and, as part of
that legend, The Anzac Book includes detailed accounts of the
Gallipoli landing and campaign. The Anzac Book is, then, truly a
monument to the men of Anzac and their spirit, expressed both
through their creative efforts and through the official narrative of their
deeds of war. The cover illustration by David Barker is one of the
most recognised depictions of the Australian soldier. Dornbusch, 237;
Fielding and O’Neill, p. 241.

[2] BEAVER, Wilfred N.
Unexplored New Guinea: A record of
the travels adventures and experiences
of a resident magistrate amongst the
head-hunting savages and cannibals of
the unexplored interior of New Guinea.
London, Seeley, Service and Co., 1920.
Octavo, pp. 320 + 16 leaves of plates,
map in the text; a very good copy in
original decorated red cloth. $165
Scarce: Beaver explored along the Waria
River in 1905 and served as Assistant
Resident Magistrate and Resident Magistrate
in several parts of Papua New Guinea
between 1907 and 1914, conducting
extensive ethnographical studies of the
indigenous inhabitants. On the outbreak of
war Beaver resigned his magistracy and was
commissioned in the A.I.F (60th Battalion).
He was killed at Passchendale in northern
France in 1917 and his book was published
posthumously. An attractive copy of the
second impression, published in the same
year as the first.

[3] DENNIS, C.J.
A Book for Kids. Sydney, Angus & Robertson, 1921. Quarto, pp.
118 (last colophon only), [2] (blank), with colour frontispiece and
title (both by Hal Gye) included in the pagination, illustrations in the
text throughout by the author; a very good copy in original clothbacked
pictorial boards, illustrated endpapers; neat and inoffensive
contemporary gift inscription on verso of the half-title, light wear to
the extremities. $2200
The rare first edition of this classic Australian children’s book. Apart from
the frontispiece and title vignette, prepared by Dennis’s favoured
illustrator Hal Gye, the entire production was illustrated in charming naïve
style by Dennis himself – cover illustration, endpapers, and text.
Perennially popular, A Book for Kids, which appears to have begun life as
a book of nonsense in the Edward Lear vein, has been reprinted in various
guises over the intervening years: in 1935, a little abridged, as
Roundabout; in 1958 under the original title with unabridged text (several
impressions to 1970); a new edition with the illustrations in colour in
1975; a facsimile reprint of this first edition in 1983; and, more recently, a
new facsimile reprint of this first edition in 2009.

[4] DUTTON, Henry Hampden.
Across Australia by Motor. Colophon:
Adelaide, J. L. Bonython & Co. [for The
Author], n.d. circa 1909. Oblong duodecimo,
pp. [2] (title-page, verso blank) + 51 leaves of
captioned photographic plates, and a folding
map (before the title); fine in the slightly
sunned original green wrappers, the title on the
front wrapper in red within a dark green frame,
printer’s colophon on the back wrapper recto,
overlapping edges. $2200
Rare: only edition of this private publication
produced for family use as a record of the first
crossing of the continent by automobile.
Dutton, a scion of the notable Adelaide family,
made this historic trip from Adelaide to Port Darwin
accompanied by his mechanic, Murray Aunger, in a
25-horsepower Clement-Talbot over 51 days
between 30 June and 20 August, 1908. The car, first
named “474” and later “Overlander”, was driven
again in 1958 by Dutton’s two sons, John and
Geoffrey, to repeat the journey, this time in ten
days. “Overlander” is preserved in the Birdwood
Mill Museum in South Australia.
Dutton and Aunger had attempted the crossing the
year before in another Clement-Talbot, “Angelina”,
but had to abandon the attempt and the car at Edinburgh Flat, south of Tennant Creek.
After his successful attempt in “Overlander”, Dutton published this book. It comprises a folding map of the route and a series of captioned photographs taken by
Dutton during the trip. These include, among other features of interest, a number of early photographs of Central Australian Aborigines, many of whom had still
been very little influenced by European civilisation. The book is also, naturally, of high automobile interest and, having been published in about 1909, is one of
the very earliest books published in Australia on the motor car.
Dutton was also a noted book collector and the sale of the library of important Australian books from his country property, “Anlaby”, at Kapunda was held in
Adelaide in 1966.
In 1985 Dutton’s son, Geoffrey, wrote an account of his father’s two trips in an article published in Pegasus XXVIII (London, Mobil Services Co. Ltd, 1985).
Geoffrey Dutton inherited a small group of fine copies that he gave from time to time to friends, until he disposed of the last handful to a Brisbane antiquarian
bookseller in the early 1990s. This fine (uncirculated) copy has the ownership stamp of writer and entertainer Barry Humphries, himself a distinguished
bibliophile (although that is not widely recognised), almost certainly one of Geoffrey’s gifts. ANB, 13733; Mills, M4.

[5] [EPHEMERA] COVENT
GARDEN TEA ROOMS AND
FRUIT CAFÉ.
This Novel Serviette is for the use of
customers, who are welcome to take
them away… Adelaide, W. Page,
Printer, [for The Covent Garden Tea
Rooms and Fruit Café], n.d. but circa
1880s. Printed novelty serviette, 365 x
380 mm, on fine tissue paper, with
central printed promotional text and a
colourful border of blue flowers; two
small holes near the border, in fine
state withal. $330
Very rare.: a fragile and attractive novelty
souvenir and advertisement issued by the
Covent Garden Tea Rooms and Fruit
Café, Adelaide. The text is printed
centrally within the delicate border of
blue flowers and is framed between large
printer’s ornaments: “This Novel
Serviette is for the use of customers, who
are welcome to take them away. THE
COVENT GARDEN Tea Rooms and
Fruit Café, 50 Arcade 50. Try our ‘Ice
Cream’.” The printer’s imprint, W. Page,
Printer, is printed in minute type closely
outside the lower of the large printed
ornaments. The Covent Garden Tea
Rooms and Fruit Café survived well into
the twentieth century with a few
variations of the name.
A very rare survival of a true ephemeron
of late nineteenth-century commercial
advertising.

[6] FORREST, Sir John.
“The Kimberley District” [in] Proceedings of the Victorian Branch
of the Geographical Society of Australasia… 1885-6. Melbourne,
Printed at the Record Office, W. Potter, Proprietor, 1886. Octavo, pp.
20; original wrappers a trifle spotted and worn at the spine fold (but
entire), a very good copy. $125
Rare, as are all early volumes of the serial. Sir John Forrest’s article is on pp.
6 – 14 of the very closely-printed twenty-page volume of Proceedings 1885-6.
The article, one of the earliest on the Kimberleys and its potential, appears to
have been nowhere reprinted.

[7] GARNSEY, Ann Stafford.
Scarlet Pillows: An Australian Nurse’s Tales of Long Ago. No imprint but Melbourne, McKellar
Press [for the Author], n.d. but circa 1950. Octavo, pp. 154 (last colophon only); an excellent copy
in original decorated stiff card wrappers. $165
First edition: North Queensland, Coolgardie and the Eastern Goldfields of W.A., and Bunbury in the 1890s.
ANB, 16857.
[8] GOLDBERG, Alfred.
A Jew Went Roaming. London, Sampson Low, Marston and Co, n.d. but 1937. Octavo, pp. [viii],
248; very good in original cloth. $125
First edition: an English gold prospector’s reminiscences of New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. His
experiences in Australia include events in Victoria in the 1870s and 1880s with a long description of an
encounter with the Kelly Gang of bushrangers. As a merchant
in the district, Goldberg claims to have had personal dealings
with the Kellys and to have found the bodies of Police
Officers Kennedy and Scanlon. The text was edited by
Stephen Ronley from Goldberg’s text or dictation. Not in
ANB; Bagnall, G420.
[9] MUSGRAVE, Sarah.
The Wayback. Parramatta (New South Wales),
Cumberland Argus, 1930. Octavo, pp. [x], 94 (last
blank), [2] (blank) + one leaf of plates; neat gift
inscription on dedication page, very good in original
wrappers. $175
Very scarce. Second edition, revised: a valuable and most
interesting series of reminiscences of the pioneer settlement
of the Young district, New South Wales. Sarah Musgrave was
born in 1830, brought up by her uncle on his Burrangong
station working as a shepherd and station hand. She describes
the foundation of early stations in the district, drawing
attention to the work of pioneer women; she describes
incidents with bushrangers (Scotchie, Witton, Frank
Gardiner, Gilbert); violent confrontations with Aborigines
and her own contact with them; gold rush to Lambing Flat
(which was one of the Burrangong runs)... She died, having
passed her century, in 1931. ANB, 31363; Walsh and Hooton,
1:174 (qv.).

[10] [THE GREAT DEP-
RESSION: The Premiers’
Plan]
Report of the Premiers’
Conference 1921 – 1933
[binder’s title]. Melbourne,
Sydney, and Canberra, Government
Printers, 1921 –
1933. Twelve pieces in one
volume, foolscap folio; signs
of use and some annotations
but excellent copies in early
binder’s cloth lettered as
above. $660
AUSTRALIA AND THE
GREAT DEPRESSION
Before the States effectively
ceded their taxation powers to
the Commonwealth during the
Second World War, the
Conferences of Commonwealth
and State governments was of
central fiscal importance. The
present volume includes a
substantial group of these
important conference papers
and reports from the period just
after the First World War
through the period of the Great
Depression. The official reports
and proceedings present here
are for Conferences held in
1921, 1923, 1926 (“Progress
Report No. 9, reprinted 1928),
1928, 1929, February 1931,
May – June 1931, August 1931,
February 1932, April 1932, June
– July 1932, 1933. The volume
is of great importance for its
thorough coverage of the

Depression years, 1931 – 1932, and the Australian response, with this crucial period accounting for half the contents of this volume.
Importantly, the volume includes the critical Conferences of 1931, which culminated in what is known as the “Premiers’ Plan”, a deflationary fiscal policy to
confront the Great Depression agreed to at the second 1931 conference in June.
Without dwelling on the human face of the Great Depression, with its high levels of unemployment and economic suffering, the period 1931-2 experienced
dramatic political upheaval and brought into stark relief the two persistent opposing strands of Australian Labor’s fiscal policy.
The Scullin Labor Government won office in 1929 and, literally, within a week was faced with the Wall Street Crash and the consequent global economic
turmoil. Economists were divided on how to respond. Conventional economists advised deflationary policies, while ‘radicals’, such as J.M. Keynes, argued for
inflationary policies and increased government spending.
This division was starkly reflected within the Federal Labor government. Prime Minister Scullin invited Sir Otto Niemeyer of the Bank of England to come to
Australia to advise on economic policy and accepted his recommendation that Australia adopt a traditional deflationary response of balanced budgets and
honouring interest repayments on Australia’s high level of foreign debt. In direct contrast, Scullin’s treasurer, ‘Red’ Ted Theodore, supported the ‘radical’s’ view
that an inflationary policy of increased government spending was the solution. Theodore’s spending plans were promptly rejected by the Senate and the
Commonwealth Bank. Meanwhile, the divisive Labor premier of New South Wales, Jack Lang, announced his so-called ‘Lang Plan’ in February 1931 at the time
of the first Conference of the year. Essentially, the ‘Lang Plan’ was to cease interest repayments on debts to Britain, the reduction of interest on all government
borrowings, and the money thereby freed up to be injected into the economy.
The rejection of the Theodore and Lang inflationary proposals set the scene for the June Conference when the governments of Australia met to negotiate a
compromise. The terms of their agreed plan would see Commonwealth and State governments cut spending by 20% to be accompanied by tax increases,
reductions in interest on bank deposits and a reduction in interest to be paid by the government on loans raised in Australia. Although the plan was signed by New
South Wales premier Jack Lang, he continued to pursue his policy of defaulting on debt repayments, leading to a stand-off with the Commonwealth government
and resulted, ultimately, in the Lang Dismissal Crisis of 1932 with Labor losing the consequent State election.
So divisive was the debate on the response to the Depression that the Australian Labor Party split in 1931, the radical left led by Lang (so-called “Lang Labor”),
and the fiscal conservatives led by Joseph Lyons, who supported the Premiers’ Plan, opposed Lang, and distrusted Theodore’s policies. Lyons quit the party,
forming the United Australia Party with other fiscal conservatives from the Labor Party and with the opposition Nationalist Party. Lyons went on to win the 1931
election convincingly and to govern Australia for a decade. Lyons was responsible for steering Australia through the Depression and into a period of solid growth
between 1932 and the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.
The present volume has a note of provenance on the front endpaper indicating that this volume was in the possession of Arthur A. Calwell, Minister in the Curtin
and Chifley governments, and Leader of the Opposition 1960-7. Although Calwell did not enter Federal parliament until 1940, he was a highly influential
member of the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party and deeply involved in State and Federal politics for decades before he ran for public office.

[11] HUNT, Dame Agnes Gwendoline.
Reminiscences. Printed for the Derwen Cripple Training College by
Wilding & Son Ltd, 1935. Octavo, pp. [vi], 3 – 138 + 11 leaves of
plates; extremities a trifle worn, the boards with some patchy fading,
very good in spine-faded original blue cloth. $220
WITH SIGNED LETTER TIPPED IN
First edition: the autobiography of Dame Agnes Hunt, one of the co-founders
and a driving force behind the Derwen Cripples Training College and the
developer of the field of orthopaedic nursing.
The Reminiscences is not, however, the worthy account of pious good deeds
you might expect. One of a large aristocratic family with highly, sometimes
outrageously, eccentric parents, Hunt writes affectionately of life with a
mother who “disliked children intensely” and a father whom she remembered
only for his “immoderate” laughter at the misfortunes and accidents of his
children.
In 1882 the recently widowed Mrs Hunt, inspired by a lecture at a local hall,
impulsively left the extensive family estate in England with eight of her
eleven children to take up Angora goat farming on an island off the coast of
Queensland.
“This extraordinary narrative, told with black anecdotal humour by a gifted
author, follows the eccentric Hunt family to Australia... [T]he incidents
related as the Hunts adjust to Brisbane (and the locals adjust to the Hunts) are
both comic and informative... Hunt’s description of her travels in Australia
(and, later, in America) with her mother, in particular their stay with brother
Tom pioneering in the wilds of Tasmania, are highlights of the memoirs...”
(Walsh and Hooton).
The Australian section, comprising the first half of the book, is a remarkable
piece of writing, virtually unknown to an Australian audience, although
Ingleton did note the “remarkable and amusing experiences in the Tasmanian
bush”.
This copy with a typed letter, signed by the author, on Derwen Cripple
Training College letterhead, dated 1939, tipped onto the front endpaper.
Not in ANB; Walsh and Hooton, II.264.

[12] MacMAHON, T. “late A.IF.”
Tales of the Diggers Old and New [wrapper title]. No imprint but
Sydney, printed by Geo. E. Nye, Petersham, [for the Author], n.d. but
1940s. Octavo, pp. [32]; cheap paper evenly tanned, some general use, a
very good copy in original titling-wrappers. $110
An uncommon and ephemeral piece. This pamphlet genre, comprising
anodyne humour and anecdotes of active service, was first published in the
course of and just after the First World War. They were printed for individual
disabled returned servicemen to be hawked around by them as a means to earn
a livelihood. Often the pamphlets were personalised with the name of the
serviceman for whom they were printed, as in the present example. It is
doubtful that the servicemen named provided the text; certain, in fact. In some
instances there is every reason to believe the named digger is fictitious,
although the individual diggers selling these pieces were quite genuine.
While these First A.I.F. pamphlets are individually extremely scarce, they are
by no means uncommon as a genre. Second World War pieces printed for
disabled servicemen are, however, rare as a genre and rare individually. The
present “book was compiled by a Returned Soldier... By purchasing this book
you are assisting Unemployed, Disabled Diggers. Thankfully yours, T.
MacMahon, late A.I.F.” (first page). A similar but completely different 16-
page piece, The Dismal Digger: Tales of the Diggers Old and New!, was
published in Melbourne (Thornbury) around the same time; it also is
personalised with the preface signed “Pts. G. Gilbert & J. Martin, late 2nd
A.I.F.”
The present piece is one of several otherwise apparently identical variants. It
is, however, one hitherto unrecorded. Two other versions have text additional
to the title on the front wrapper: “United We Stand” and “Season’s
Greetings”, whereas the present piece has only the title and a rather naïve
martial illustration. We have traced the book in only three institutional
collections (National Library of Australia: “United We Stand” and “Season’s
Greetings”; State Library of NSW: “United We Stand”; and Baillieu Library,
The University of Melbourne, “Season’s Greetings”.

[13] NORTH AUSTRALIAN LEAGUE.
The Construction of the Trans-Australian Railway to Port Darwin. To
Capitalists, Railway Contractors, and others [drop title]. Melbourne,
The North Australian League, n.d. but circa 1901 – 1902. Broadside folio,
two very short sealed splits in the leading margin, inoffensive early blue
pencil marks in the margin, an excellent copy. $220
Rare: outlining the League’s case for constructing a trans-Australian rail link to
Port Darwin for the encouragement of trade and the development of the Territory.
From internal evidence, this piece was published close to the time of the League’s
foundation. The founding Chairman of the League was G.R. McMinn, former
Senior Government Surveyor and Acting-Government Resident in the Northern
Territory.

[14] NORTH AUSTRALIAN LEAGUE.
A New Trade Route… Port Darwin the “Clapham Junction” of Australia…
[drop title]. Melbourne, Greene & Fargher [for The North Australian League],
n.d. but circa 1902. Folio, pp. [4], the central opening with two full-page maps;
short sealed split at the spine fold, an excellent copy, folded as issued. $330
Rare: one of several highly ephemeral pieces published by the League in the early years
of the century as they agitated, unsuccessfully, for a trans-Australian railway link to Port
Darwin, one of the most obvious public works for the encouragement of trade and travel
in general. Obviously, it was too sensible…

[15] [QUEENSLAND: BOER WAR]
Queensland Troops for the Transvaal… Return [for]… Copies of
All Correspondence, Documents, Papers, and Government Gazette
Notices relating to the proposal to send a number of members of
the Queensland Defence Force to the Transvaal. Brisbane, Ordered
by the legislative Assembly to be Printed, 5th October 1899. Foolscap
folio, pp. 16 (last blank); stapled as issued, about fine. $385
Very scarce: Legislative Assembly paper A. 35-1899. A comprehensive
document with details of the troops proposed to be sent and the nature of their
engagement in the war.
Accompanied by five related papers of the same year:
1. Proposed United Australian Contingent for the Transvaal (Report of
Conference of Commandants concerning). Foolscap folio, pp. 4, folded as
issued, fine. Brisbane, Edmund Gregory, Government Printer, 1899. Paper
C.A. 90-1899.
2. Approval by Legislative Assembly of Proposal to Despatch a Force of
Volunteers for Service in South Africa (Telegram from Secretary of State
respecting). Foolscap folio broadside, one leaf, loose as issued, fine. Brisbane,
Edmund Gregory, Government Printer, 1899. Legislative Assembly paper A.
41-1899.
3. Queensland Troops for the Transvaal (Further Correspondence respecting).
Foolscap folio, pp. 2, loose as issued, fine. Brisbane, Edmund Gregory,
Government Printer, 1899. Paper C.A. 106-1899.
4. Proposed Despatch of Additional Australian Troops to South Africa
(Correspondence respecting). Foolscap folio broadside, one leaf, loose as
issued, fine. Brisbane, Edmund Gregory, Government Printer, 1899. Paper
C.A. 119-1899.
5. Despatch of Additional Troops to South Africa (Further Correspondence
respecting). Foolscap folio broadside, one leaf, loose as issued, fine. Brisbane,
Edmund Gregory, Government Printer, 1899. Paper C.A. 124-1899.

[16] SCULTHORPE, Peter.
A collection of his early printed music, all but a couple inscribed to Russell and Maisie Drysdale. Various places, 1964 – 1981. 16 pieces
variously sized, mainly quarto, all but one in printed wrappers, that one in spiral-bound plain boards. $330
Comprising (all of these are inscribed and signed): (i) Irkanda IV, 1964. (ii) Morning-song for the Christ Child, 1966. (iii) Sea Chant, 1969. (iv) Snow, Moon and
Flowers, 1971 (this being a handmade duplication from manuscript). (v) Autumn Song, 1972. (vi) Sun Music II, 1974 (cover stained). (vii) String Quartet No. 9,
1978. (viii) Irkanda I, 1978. (ix) Music for Japan, 1979. (x) Sonata for Viola & Percussion, 1979. (xi) Port Essington, 1980 (this with a cover by Drysdale). (xii)
Small Town, 1981 (this dedicated to Drysdale and inscribed just to Maisie).
The following are uninscribed: (xiii) Sun Music I, 1966. (xiv) Sun Music IV, 1967 (this apparently duplicated from typescript and manuscript).
Added are: Peter Sculthorpe List of Works – Discography (1967); and Vol I, No.1 of Music Now (February 1969) signed by Sculthorpe, George Dreyfus, Richard
Meale and Nigel Butterley (also with a cover by Drysdale).
One of Australia’s major twentieth-century musicians and composers, Sculthorpe’s music has been greatly influenced by the music of neighbouring Asian
cultures and, more significantly in later times, by indigenous Australian music. He is recognised mainly for his orchestral and chamber pieces, especially those
that evoke the sounds and impressions of the Australian bush and outback, avoiding the fashionable heavy-handed atonal techniques embraced by most of his
contemporaries.

[17] SOUTER, D.H. and Sidney BEAUMONT.
Aeroplane View of Sydney 1914 Looking Southwards towards Botany Bay as it would be seen from an altitude of about 5000 ft. above
North Sydney. With Key to the Principal Places. Drawn and Painted by Sidney Beaumont and D.H. Souter. Sydney, H.E.C. Robinson, 1914.
Folding coloured bird’s-eye-view map of Sydney with uncoloured index map, 215 x 450 mm; folding into heavy paper titling-wrappers, one corner
of the friable overlapping wrappers chipped, the folding view fine. $330
Rare, fragile and ephemeral. Apart from the interest of this piece within the artistic work of D.H. Souter, it is a very early example of Australian aeronautica. The
bird’s-eye map is reasonably detailed – almost an isometric map – and records turn-of-the-century Sydney before the Harbour Bridge became the centre of
geographical attention.

[18] TURNER, James A.
[Australian Bush Life] A complete set of 46 colour-printed postcards,
published 1904 – circa 1907. Melbourne, Osboldstone & Co. [and Robert
Jolley], n.d. but 1904ff. 46 colour-printed, captioned postcards; loose as issued,
many postally used, a complete set in excellent state preserved loose in a collector’s
album.$2200
RARE COMPLETE SET: AN OUTSTANDING SOCIAL DOCUMENT
FROM THE EARLY FEDERAL ERA
James Alfred Turner, was born in February 1850 at Bradford, in Yorkshire. His father
was a senior accountant in a Bradford
bank, something that would later give
rise to one of the many myths about
Turner – that he was a retired banker
who only painted as a hobby.
Although evidently well-to-do and
probably of independent means, Turner was, however, an artist with formal training. He arrived in Melbourne in
April 1873 with his brother Charles, evidently intending to establish himself as a professional artist at a time
when Melbourne was one of the great booming cities of the world. His earliest-known painting in Australia,
“The Kangaroo Hunt”, was dated in the year of his arrival. After over a decade of life in Melbourne, in 1888 he
bought a small holding at Kilsyth, at the foot of the Dandenong Ranges, and it is this world of the small holder
in the Victorian ranges that inspired, and is so meticulously recorded in, his paintings.
While Turner exhibited with Victorian Artists’ Society, the Australian Art Association, the Victorian Academy
of Arts, the Yarra Sculptors’ Society, the Melbourne and New Melbourne art clubs, his only major commission
appears to have been the fourteen paintings of bush life that philanthropist gold-digger James Oddie
commissioned him to execute in 1884 as a gift to the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery. Whatever evidence we have,
much of it gossip, suggests that Turner genuinely painted for his own satisfaction and not for his livelihood.
He recorded in exceptional detail the daily life among the small rural settlers in the ranges north of Melbourne,
a subject that appealed to several contemporary artists, including, for example, Frederick McCubbin – most
notably in his great 1904 triptych, “The Pioneer”. It is the life McCubbin celebrates that Turner had set out to
record in a prolific and detailed series of mainly small, but some huge, oil paintings, watercolours, and
gouaches. His faithful record of the typical incidents of rural life did not please contemporary and later art
critics, who considered him a mere illustrator, their minds set firmly on his style and not his substance.
Others were less censorious, recognising him as “our best known painter of incident” and that he painted with
“peculiar exactness”. The Melbourne Argus, in its 1908 obituary, grasped his purpose better: “an artist who not
only understood and appreciated the beauty of the bush, but could depict faithfully its life and character. He
was, as a rule, content with small canvasses, homely incidents and quiet aspects of nature. At times he was
exceedingly happy in his landscapes and would often touch a very high if not inspired note. No man ever

painted the realisms of a forest fire and its fighting better than he, or with more absolute truth. He was a very conscientious man, painting chiefly to please
himself, without any suspicion of pot-boiling, never allowing work to leave his hands until he was thoroughly satisfied”.
It is his “peculiar exactness” that make Turner’s work so unique an historic resource. No camera could capture the spirit of a time and a way of life as he did,
recording in often painstaking detail not only the larger aspects of life in the bush but also their context, with the impedimenta of everyday life, the tools, the
buildings, the makeshifts, the rituals. It is said that a trained eye can even identify the species of his trees. Certainly, the untrained eye can see the precise design
and construction of every axe, shovel, plough, billy can, saddle, shirt, neckerchief, – everything– that he portrayed in his paintings.
What makes Turner’s contribution to the social documentation of the period so valuable is not just that his work is prolific but that it was widely popularised, as
no other artist or indeed photographer was. In about 1904 the first of his small canvases was reproduced on a postcard and by 1907, when Turner died suddenly
and young, forty-six of his studies of rural and bush life had been issued in the series, providing a visual record of a contemporary artist that was at the time
unexampled in Australia. The series was generally untitled but a small number of cards have the series title "Australian Bush Life" added to the card title.
The postcards were produced by the Melbourne printers Osboldstone & Atkinson, subsequently Osboldstone & Co., a firm known for their colour-printing.
Contemporary advertisements, however, suggest that the publication and distribution was undertaken by Robert Jolley, who had a special line in ephemeral pieces
such as souvenirs, postcards, and pictorial novelties. The forty-six cards were issued in sets of six or twelve cards, and continued to be issued well up to the
1920s. With each issue – now virtually impossible to distinguish – there were some trivial changes to the captions and, more significantly, there were various
‘novelty’ or special issues produced over the years, with gilt deckled edges or with seasonal greetings printed in gilt on the image, for example. Some in the series
were essentially ‘sublet’ to advertisers, with their brands printed on the card. Some of the series were reproduced in the 1920s as folded greeting cards. Some of
the postcard images even ended up as dinner mats and folding pocket calendars, others were reproduced in larger format as commercial prints.
The huge popularity of Turner’s postcard images in the first decades of the twentieth century is a story in its own right. It is easy to dismiss this as a hangover of
late-Victorian sentimentality, or of nationalist nostalgia, or some other equally dismissive epithet. But the evidence is against this. Many extant cards have been
used by contemporaries and it is regularly the case that for every “Meet you Friday” there are tthose that comment on the image, explaining it to a
correspondent overseas or a confirmed town dweller, or simply discussing the type of incident or person depicted. To these writers the incidents and
circumstances are real and recognisably so. The handful of Turner postcards from the James Baird Scott archive in Museum Victoria are a good example.
The series of Turner’s postcards have been long and popularly collected by cartophiles. Complete sets are, nevertheless, rare with several cards being, for no
apparent reason, very elusive indeed. The present set is a complete one, the cards in very good to fine state. A good number of cards are postally used and the
cancellation stamps show that most were issued in the earlier stages of publication.
A desirable, important, and comprehensive social record of a prominent aspect of Australian life at the turn of the century.

Domestica
[19] ASBESTOLITE Pty
Ltd.
Modern Homes of
Genuine “Asbestolite”
Asbestos-Cement Sheets.
Manufactured in South
Australia [wrapper title].
Adelaide, Asbestolite
Proprietary Limited, May
1957. Oblong quarto, pp.
16 (including wrappers),
printed in two colours;
original colour illustrated
titling-wrappers, a shallow
old vertical fold but near
fine. $330
Rare. Catalogue ‘A.20’ May,
1957. The trade mark of
Adelaide-based Asbestolite
Pty Ltd was registered in
1941. The firm was taken
over by James Hardie
Industries towards the end of
the 1950s and they continued
the Asbestolite lines (usually
renamed) and, interestingly,
some of their promotional
material, changing only the
name of the manufacturer.

[20] AUSTRAL WIRE FENCE AND GATE Co. Pty. Ltd.
Catalogue No. 9 Gates Fences [wrapper title]. Melbourne, Printed by
McPherson and Morison, n.d. circa late 1920s. Octavo, pp. 64, very
richly illustrated with photographs and line drawings, printed on art
paper; staples rusted and the wrappers detaching, that apart, a fine clean
copy, the wrappers with the lightest use. $330
Very scarce. Manufacturers in East Brunswick, Victoria, of metal hand gates,
wrought iron gates, wrought iron panels, metal driveway gates, chain wire
fence fabric, tennis
court enclosures, ringlock
farm fence, ringlock
pig fence, shop
front guards, machinery
guards, etc., etc.,
all of which are illustrated
and described in
the catalogue, making
this a very well
illustrated and comprehensive
guide to
functional and decorative
domestic wrought
iron and other metal
work of the late 1920s
and into the early
1930s. We can only
locate copies of
Austral’s Catalogue 8
(Monash University,
bought from us in
2006) and Catalogue
15 (State Library of
Victoria).

[21] AUSTRALASIAN IMPLEMENT & HOUSE FURNISHING COMPANY.
Furnishing Catalogue [wrapper title]. Adelaide, Sharples Bros., Catalogue Printers [for Australasian Implement & House Furnishing Company],
[September 1909]. Quarto, pp. viii, 264 + four plates ( including one large folding plate, and two colour plates) + tipped-in leaf (“December, 1910.
Lines Discontinued and Prices Altered in Furnishing Catalogue Issued September, 1909”), profusely illustrated throughout (a number of pages with
colour) with photographs and line drawings; a few pencilled alterations to prices, a little general use but an excellent copy, very clean and sound, in
original red nicely illustrated titling-wrappers (illustration of a young lady floral arranging, with highlights of white). $3300
Rare: an exceptional and remarkably well-illustrated catalogue of pre-war Edwardian furnishings published by “the Great North Terrace House Furnishing &
Machinery Emporium”, conveniently situated opposite the erstwhile North Terrace Passenger Railway Station (it’s a casino now, isn’t it), useful for the firm’s

many well-heeled rural customers who bought not only their furniture there but also their farm machinery or irrigation equipment, although these lines are not, of
course, included in this vast catalogue. The two colour plates are of Carpets and Patterns of Floorcloth and Linoleum.
The large folding photographic plate at page 9 (the Royal Suite: chair, dressing-table, wardrobe, washstand, pedestal cupboard) is imperfect, with a neat enough
old repair at the torn fold, but with some loss, there is also a defect in the outer edge with a little of the picture gone (see illustration).
Produced without stinting on cost, with its index, profuse illustration, and priced throughout, the catalogue is a comprehensive picture of the elegant Edwardian
home in this most European of communities.
There is a 1918 furnishing catalogue from the firm in the State Library of South Australia (112 pages) and a 1927 furnishing catalogue at Deakin University (also
112 pages). Apart from those two later pieces there appear to be no other holdings of this firm’s remarkable furniture catalogues; certainly nothing as early or as
substantial.

[22] BEAUFORT DIVISION, Department of
Aircraft Production.
Beaufort Homes: Individually Styled Modern
Designs [cover title]. [Melbourne], Beaufort Division,
Department of Aircraft Construction, June 1946.
Oblong broadsheet, folding to four double-sided
panels, octavo, pages numbered to 6 with two
unnumbered, printed in green and black with highlights
reversed out in white; trivial use, a fine copy. $330
Rare and important: showing floor plans and realisations
(inside and out) of the Beaufort display home on view in
The Treasury Gardens, Melbourne, June 1946.
From manufacturing bombers during the war to designing
metal-based housing after seems a leap but, on reflection, a
logical and imaginative one. The wartime restrictions on
building materials and resources continued into the post-war
years when there was a huge unfulfilled demand for home
construction. The prefabricated Beaufort Homes, designed
by Arthur Baldwinson for the Department of Aircraft
Production, were part of a government scheme to reduce
housing shortages. They were also a productive and practical
way of converting factories that had been dedicated to the
production of munitions and other military matériel to peace
time use. Although ultimately abandoned, the Beaufort
Home project was a pioneering venture into prefabricated
building design and production.
“The Beaufort Home is the culmination of intensive research
in design durability, insulation and equipment by the Beaufort Division of the Department of Aircraft Production in association with the Victorian State Housing
Commission and the Commonwealth Department of Works and Housing through their Experimental Building Station. The project was financed by the
Commonwealth…”.
The display home (“of which only one has been built”), is to obtain an expression of opinion from the public on this modern method of house construction”.
Visitors were invited to complete a questionnaire after viewing the Beaufort Home; the questionnaire was inserted in this ‘pamphlet’ but is no longer present.
The experiment was greeted positively and in the following year Beaufort published a similar piece with the same title and in the same format showing various
aspects of the Beaufort Home Type 2 – similar to the Beaufort Home Type 1 on view in June 1946. Furthermore “The Housing Commission, Victoria, has placed
orders for 5,000 homes concurrently with an order from the Commonwealth War Service Homes Commission for 5,500 Beaufort Homes. It is anticipated that
volume production will commence in September, 1947.”
Both these pieces are very rare and, of their nature, highly ephemeral; we can trace copies of the present piece only in the State Library of New South Wales and
in the University of Technology Sydney, while the 1947 piece seems only to be held in the Matheson Library, Monash University.

[23] BRITISH GENERAL ELECTRIC Company Pty Ltd.
[Catalogue] B.G.C. Sole Australian Representatives for the
General Electric Co. Ltd. of England [cover title]. Sydney, British
General Electrical Company Pty Ltd, circa 1940. Quarto, pp. 352,
illustrations throughout; original, somewhat friable, card wrappers,
some defects to the front wrapper (clear of text) and a crack repaired
neatly (on the verso), internally fine. $185
Very scarce: “a comprehensive Catalogue of products marketed in Australia
by British General Electric Co., Ltd… a publication dealing with everything
electrical”. Despite the name, this was the Australian distributor for General
Electric Co. Ltd, England: “G.E.C. = B.G.C”, as they put it.
It is a thorough and encyclopaedic, indexed and illustrated overview of
electrical equipment – industrial, commercial, domestic – available in
Australia in the late 1930s and early 1940s. First issued in March 1937, this is
the third “edition”, actually the third impression since the preliminary notice
points out that prices have not been altered, although “war has since broken
out” with consequent changes to prices and availability. This catalogue predates
the dated 1942 edition (State Library of Victoria).
[24] CIVIL SERVICE STORES.
The Stores One Week Sale Nov. 14th – 19th 1927 of China, Glass…
& Manchester [wrapper title]. Sydney, Civil Service Stores, 1927.
Octavo, pp. 12, with illustrations; fine in original wrappers. $125
Uncommon sale catalogue from the Sydney retailer: “Every Item in These
Two Departments is REDUCED”. All items priced.

[25] COLTON, PALMER & PRESTON Ltd.
Catalogue. Tiles, Sanitary Ware, Mantelpieces, Grates, Etc.
Adelaide, The Collotype Ltd. [for Colton, Palmer and Preston],
n.d. but 1920s. Quarto, pp. [16], 17 – 64, with very numerous
mainly photographic illustrations (ten pages in colour); original
wrappers a little dog-eared, with occasional soiling and other use
(consistent with the average plumber), a good copy. $220
Uncommon: an extensive catalogue of domestic plumbing – floor and
wall tiles, baths, bath heaters, sinks, grates, stoves, fittings, water closets,
and so on – as well as mantelpieces, grates, fire sundries, and domestic
stoves several of which are given colour treatment here. The catalogue
valuably includes a series of colour pictures of five moderne bathroom
designs, each one christened (The Sandown, The Holmesdale, The
Pembroke, The Ripley, The Dunrobin !illustrated), and two colour
pages with tiling patterns.

[26] DANKS, John & Sons Pty Ltd.
Catalogue ‘A’ of ‘Daspyl’ Engineers’ and Plumbers’
Supplies [banner title on page 1]. Melbourne, John Danks &
Sons Pty Ltd, n.d. but circa 1930s. Octavo, pp. 36, extensive
line-drawn illustrations throughout; original wrappers a little
edge-worn, and occasional light damp marking, a good, sound
copy. $125
Very scarce: illustrated and indexed trade catalogue of domestic and
other fittings and accessories from this long-established Australian
firm. This catalogue of ‘A’ series Daspyl brand products
complements the more diverse ‘B’ catalogue issued at about the same
time (see our catalogue 34).

[27] D. and J. FOWLER Ltd.
Catalogue of Proprietary Lines [wrapper title]. Adelaide, D. and
J. Fowler: November, 1915. Tall octavo, pp. 32, “Alterations in
Prices” leaf tipped-in; shallow old fold (for posting) but near fine in
original titling-wrappers. $220
An extensive catalogue of foodstuffs, ointments, and the like for people
and livestock. D. and J. Fowler Ltd. was established by David and James
Fowler in 1854. The business was originally a retail outlet in King William
Street, Adelaide, but it soon expanded to a wholesale business with a
variety of interests. The company became one of Australia’s largest
wholesale grocers involved in diverse areas such as milling, tea, and
bottling – Fowler’s Vacola bottling process is nostalgically familiar to
generations of Australians and continues today.

[28] G.E. FULTON and Co.
Illustrated Catalogue of Fulton’s Castings... Vol. I. Awarded First Prizes and Certificates of Merit wherever Exhibited. all published].
Adelaide, J.H. Sherring and Co., Printers for G.E. Fulton and Co., [ 1887]. Tall octavo, pp. [iv] + 57 full-page engraved plates: an excellent copy in

lightly used original green sand-grain cloth, the front board lettered in
gilt. $2750
Rare and highly important: one of the earliest and most detailed illustrated
catalogues extant of Australian architectural cast iron and wrought iron.
G.E. Fulton and Co. were “Architectural, Sanitary, and General Iron
Founders, Mechanical and Consulting Engineers” with offices in Peel Street,
Adelaide and with a foundry at Kilkenny.
The company boasted that they were “in a position to produce any design in
cast-iron of a quality and at a price that will compete with the very best
English makers” and the catalogue is an elaborately-produced pictorial
exhibition of their designs for domestic and ornamental cast-iron and
wrought-iron. The products displayed are predominantly architectural – cast
iron balustrading and panels, wicket gates and standards, double gates and
carriage gates, pillars, verandas, an ornamental pagoda (frontispiece), and so
on. Many of the designs appear to show the influence of Walter Macfarlane of
Glasgow. The last three plates include bath tubs and troughs, while the final
plate shows a cross-section of sewerage system and ‘sanitary pans’. Each
engraved plate displays one or more (sometimes six) of the firm’s lines,
providing an unequalled – and arguably the earliest surviving – survey of late
nineteenth-century cast and wrought iron designs in Australia.
George E. Fulton arrived in South Australia in 1878, and established his
Foundry in 1879. A contract for cast-iron pipes enabled him to establish the
first pipe factory in Adelaide. The company had advertised in 1882 as
“Consulting Engineers, Builders, Contractors and Machinery Importers for
engines and machinery of all descriptions”. It soon became one of the largest
industrial concerns in South Australia, supplying cast-iron work of all
descriptions, pipes, mine furnaces, and pumping engines.
Described as the “Second Edition”, this was an extended catalogue intended
to cover twice as many patterns as the first edition or, more accurately, the
first version. It is extraordinary that no copy of the first edition can be located
nor are any details recorded for it. Nor is there a second volume of the present
1887 catalogue to be found. There are two copies of the present volume (only)
in institutional collections (State Library of South Australia, and Historical
Houses Trust, NSW).
See further www.mileslewis.net/australian-building/pdf/08-metals/8.07-ornamentalcast-iron.pdf
for useful historical context.

[29] GRACE Bros.
Grace Bros.’ General
Catalogue 1928-9 [cover title].
Sydney, Snelling Printing Works
[for Grace Bros.], 1928. Large
quarto, pp. [ii] (front pastedown
endpaper), vi (general information
and order form), 472, [12]
(index on green paper, last leaf as
back pastedown endpaper) + 15
tabbed sectional index leaves,
with very numerous illustrations
throughout (many in colour);
some expected use but very good
in original printed contrasting
cloth, this cloth a little flecked
and rubbed in places. $2200
Extremely scarce: a comprehensive
catalogue of merchandise available
from this major Sydney emporium in
the 1928-9 season. The catalogue is,
is fact, a cumulation of the firm’s
separate departmental catalogue
brought together into one volume,
separated by tabbed sectional index
leaves on coloured papers. Some of
the merchandise offered – most
illustrated and all priced – comprises: Ladies’ frocks, Maid’s and Children’s
wear, Ladies’ footwear, Ladies’ underclothing, Laces, Gloves, Perfumery,
Haberdashery, Manchester, Dress and Silk Fabrics, Toys, Books, Stationary,
Men’s and Boys’ wear, Drapery, Floor coverings, Crockery and Glassware,
Household Ironmongery, Garden Tools and Hardware, Jewellery, Aluminium
ware, Gramophones, Silver Plate, Ironmongery, Saddlery, Sanitary Ware, and
Furniture. The final section of “Furniture by Grace Bros.”, the largest section
here, is an edition of Grace Bros.’ well-known and now very scarce series of
furniture catalogues issued in various years throughout the 1920s.

[30] GEO. P. HARRIS, SCARFE & Co., Limited.
Catalogue of Room Heaters. 1911. Adelaide, Geo. P. Harris,
Scarfe & Co., Limited, 1911. Quarto, pp. 8, illustrated
comprehensively; stapled as issued, filing holes as issued, about
fine. $550
Very rare. Much on a few pages, some eighteen products described
and beautifully illustrated, mostly two or three to a page.
In our experience, Australian domestic trade catalogues before the
First World War are very rarely seen, the consequence, one suspects,
of wartime waste-paper drives on the one hand and of post-war
changes in price, taste, and technology. The following group from
1911 – 1912 from Harris, Scarfe, the prominent and long-lived (and
recently sadly disgraced) retailer, is truly exceptional.

[31] GEO. P. HARRIS, SCARFE & Co., Limited.
Catalogue of Grates, Stoves, and Mantels including Air-Pit Fires, Ovens, Ranges,
Wallpapers, Ceilings, Tiles, etc. Adelaide, Donald Taylor Collotype Co. [for Geo. P.
Harris, Scarfe & Co., Limited], 1912. Quarto, pp. 56 + two plates in colour (“Patterns
of Flooring Tiles”), comprehensively illustrated; original brown linen-grain wrappers
printed in red, filing holes as issued, fine and crisp. $1450
Very rare. The title describes the contents pretty exhaustively and the illustrations flesh out the
bald words. The Harris,
Scarfe catalogues from
this period are
uniformly comprehensive
in illustration.
The firm had several
branches: Adelaide,
Broken Hill, Perth, Port
Adelaide, Fremantle,
and Kalgoorlie. These
catalogues not only
served these branches,
not all of which could
carry the same
extensive stock, but all
places in between,
where illustration was
essential if the customer
was to make an
informed order.

[32] GEO. P. HARRIS, SCARFE & Co., Limited.
Catalogue of Sanitary-Ware. Adelaide, Donald Taylor Collotype
Co. [for Geo. P. Harris, Scarfe & Co., Limited], [1912]. Quarto, pp.
28, comprehensively illustrated; original blue wrappers printed in
red and white, filing holes as issued, the wrappers with some fading
but the contents about fine. $850
Very rare: a fully illustrated and indexed catalogue of baths, lavatory
basins, Royal Doulton cisterns, Royal Doulton closets, closet seats, septic
tank fittings, the 20th Century Water Heater (models for fuel and for gas),
etc. etc.

[33] HOMECRAFTS Pty Ltd.
Radio and Electrical Encyclopaedia and 1935 Catalogue [wrapper
title]. Melbourne, Printed by Verona Press Pty. Ltd. for Homecrafts
Pty. Ltd., 1935. Octavo, pp. 104, photographic and line-drawn
illustrations; staples rusting and a little worn on the spine, very good in
original titling-wrappers. $220
Scarce: as it claimed, an encyclopaedic priced catalogue of radio sets,
equipment, and parts; the catalogue also includes the firm’s other nonelectrical
lines. There is good illustration of things deserving illustration.
There is also a list of the “Latest Radio and Television Publications” (p. 65).

[34] JENKINS, Norman J.
The Australian House. Sydney, W.J. Nesbit, n.d. but 1946. Large
quarto, pp. [2] (blank), 120 (last blank), with floor plans and
realisations throughout, own ends; internally fine in original pale
blue thin boards (little rubbed and lightly bumped at extremities),
title and author reversed out on front board and spine. $110
Scarce: first edition. A collection of fifty ‘contemporary’ house designs,
with floor plans and realisations, and with a good basic introductory text
(Town Planning in relation to the Home, Domestic Architecture, Truth in
Expression, Health, Sunlight and Air, Climate and Comfort, Influence of
Costs, Aspect, Living Rooms, Bedrooms, Storage Space, Windows, The
Country House, The Architect and his Work, etc.). The piece, by a
respected Sydney architect, is directed to prospective home owners
rather than to professional architects or other tradesmen. It is not
descriptive but prescriptive. The largely modernist houses here are not so
much ‘typical’ houses of the period as they are houses that might appeal
to the ‘typical’ aspirational middle-class home buyer or builder.

[35] SMITH, Alex.
Australian Home Carpentry. No. 2. Melbourne, Edgar H. Baillie
for United Press, 1 August, 1933. Quarto, pp. 52 (wrappers included
in pagination); wrappers starting to detach and with a modest degree
of use, a very good copy. $85
Comprising detailed instructions for various projects, both carpentry and
cabinet-making: “a Cottage for Weekends”, cabinets, chairs, bookcases,
bunks, ladders, a dinner wagon, “Etc. Etc.” Alex Smith, an instructor in
carpentry at the Working Men’s College, Melbourne, published a handful
of similarly titled books and booklets in the late 1920s through to the
1940s, most of them – including this one – under the aegis of Australian
Home Beautiful.

[36] URE SMITH, Sydney and Leon GELLERT (editors).
The Home Annual 1932 – 1941 [all published]. Sydney, Art in
Australia [later John Fairfax and Sons], 1932 – 1941. Ten issues, large
quarto, with illustrations in colour, sepia, and black & white
throughout; original pictorial wrappers with light general use but an
excellent set.
[together with]
The Home: An Australian Quarterly. Vol. 3, No. 2 – Vol. 23, No. 3.
Comprising issues for June 1922, Sep 1924, Aug 1925, June 1926, Sep
1928, July 1930, Dec 1931, Sep 1933, Sep 1934, Dec 1934, Sep 1935,
Nov 1935, May 1937, Aug 1937, Dec 1937, Jan 1938, Jan 1939, May
1939, Aug 1939, Oct 1939, Dec 1939, and Mar 1942. Sydney, Art in
Australia [and John Fairfax and Sons], 1922 – 1942. 22 issues, large
quarto, with illustrations in colour, sepia, and black & white
throughout; original highly decorative pictorial wrappers with general
use (some more severe than others) but a very good set. $4400
Uncommon: a rare complete set of The Home Annual, an exceptional record
of the outlook and interests of well-to-do Australians in the important ten-year
period from the Depression through prosperity to the depths of war. Together
with a very good selection of 22 issues over the life of the periodical from
1922 to 1942.
“The Home reflects the modern spirit in Australia… [It] is the one
authority in Australia in matters of good taste and has come to be
recognized as one of the finest journals in the world today. It is in a state
of continual warfare with the commonplace and drab. Subscribe now and
keep your mind in the mood of the moment and make your home a fit
setting for the interesting and brilliant life of this century. A subscriber to
The Home can never be old-fashioned or ordinary” *
The Home: An Australian Quarterly began publication in February
1920. Published in Sydney by Art in Australia Ltd and originally produced by
a team of editors, notably Sydney Ure Smith, Bertram Stevens, and Julia
Lister, it was established in an effort to help finance the magazine Art in
Australia and other art press projects. Despite early losses, it did eventually
provide financial stability for the publisher.
One of the most sophisticated and stylish design journals and Australian
‘lifestyle’ publications of the 1920s and 1930s, its audience was
predominantly well-off middle-class women. Dedicated to the ‘modern
lifestyle’, as lived by the socially fortunate, the magazine documented the

social concerns of the day through feature articles and photography with a
focus on travel, home decorating, fashion, cosmetics, cultural events, and
other amusements of the independent and ‘modern’ woman. Its excellence
in content and printing propelled it into the league of the international
magazines that inspired it, such as Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and Vanity
Fair, distinguishing it from all other Australian publications.
Notably, The Home captured the spirit of the inter-war years and promoted
women in a modern context, with cover art most commonly giving
particular emphasis to the female subject as both poised and intelligent.
While similar imagery is seen frequently in contemporary magazines, The
Home was a pioneer here in Australia in embracing a social revolution
which saw many women striving to become increasingly active and
independent. While there is a great diversity of style in the magazine’s
graphic cover designs, the very definite feminine framework was reflected
in the lavish cover illustrations by Thea Proctor, Hera Roberts, Douglas
Annand, Adrian Feint and others, which featured glamorous women living
active modern lives.
From a more cynical angle, Ure Smith and the others most closely
associated with the magazine were proficient advertising professionals who
made it their business to know exactly what their audience wanted.
Perhaps, the fact that the magazine’s leading lights were not social
‘activists’ or ‘progressives’ but professionals skilled at mirroring their
public’s self-perceptions and ambitions might make The Home an even
more valuable and valid social document.
Recognised for its promotion of graphic art and advertising in Australian
magazines, particularly through the influence of its magazine covers, its
articles and artwork reflected the dawn of modernism in Australia. Artists
and photographers commissioned by Sydney Ure Smith, included Thea
Proctor, Margaret Preston, Frank Hinder, Douglas Annand, Hera Roberts,
Adrian Feint, Harold Cazneaux (appointed official house photographer in
1920), and Max Dupain. Through these cover designs, articles,
advertisements, and photography, one can trace the influence of
international art and design movements on Australian practice and on the
taste and social aspirations of Australia’s increasingly affluent urban
middle class.
The Home proclaimed itself to be ‘modern’, which in Australian terms it
was, although it ignored movements such as futurism, cubism, and
surrealism. But ‘modern’ in inter-war Sydney meant not much more than to
be stylish and well-connected. The côterie of cultural élites that gathered

around Sydney Ure Smith and David Lloyd Jones to guard this
Sydney brand of ‘modern’ included, among others more or less
notable, Thea Proctor, Hera Roberts, Margaret Preston, Adrian
Feint, Rayner Hoff, their ‘official’ photographer Harold Cazneaux,
and the architects John D. Moore, Hardy Wilson, and Leslie
Wilkinson. Although far from a ‘modern’, Norman Lindsay, that
other panjandrum of Sydney cultural dialectic, was welcomed at
the periphery. Rejecting convention but not commerce, these
Sydney ‘moderns’ were not revolutionary followers of the
European avant-garde, but had an uncomplicated admiration for
talent, taste, intelligence, and style, looking outward to America,
to Asia, and to the Mediterranean rather than to England. These
young ‘moderns’ carried out the pursuit and promotion of their
collective ideals through the pages of Ure Smith’s magazines, Art
in Australia and The Home, and did so with marked success. So
much so that it is to The Home that one instinctively looks when
seeking something representative of the ‘twenties and ‘thirties in
Australia.
After fourteen years, in 1934, Sydney Ure Smith sold his Art in
Australia and The Home publications to John Fairfax & Sons Ltd,
publishers of the Sydney Morning Herald. With the change of
ownership came some changes of style and direction. Surrealist
(November 1939, for instance) and almost dadaist cover images
(July 1936, for instance) made occasional appearances. In 1938
Ure Smith finally severed all connection with the magazine, which
continued into the 1940s but, facing both wartime austerity and
strong competition from international magazines, it finally ceased
publication in 1942.
See further Robert Holden, Cover Up: the art of magazine covers
in Australia (Sydney, 1995) for an excellent analysis of the context
and sub-text of cover art in The Home and its contemporaries.
* Advertisement for The Home, quoted without citation by Jill Julius
Matthews, “Review of Howard Tanner’s Thoroughly Modern Sydney:
1920s And 30s Glamour & Style”, History Australia, Volume 4, Number
1, 2007 (Monash University Epress).

[37] ARTHUR J. VEALL Pty Ltd.
Vealls Radio & Electrical Catalogue 1934. Melbourne, Arthur
J. Veall Pty Ltd., 1934. Quarto, pp. 68 (three pages printed in
red and black) + four leaves inserted (one a folding double leaf)
printed in colours additional to the pagination, very numerous
illustrations (many photographic); very good in original colourprinted
wrappers, the spine slightly worn, little cheap paper
edge-tanning. $220
Very scarce: a wide-ranging catalogue of the lines offered by this
prominent electrical goods retailer, a business that still exists as a
public company. In addition to the many radio-related items,
everything from valves to radio cabinets, the catalogue includes a
wide range of electrical goods, radiators, vacuum cleaners, lights and
lampshades, “Household Labour Savers”... Interestingly, the
“Household Labour Savers” – electric refrigerators, toasters, kettles,
boiling jugs, grillers, cake mixers – were for a long time ‘luxury’
items that would not become common in households for two or three
decades.

[38] WUNDERLICH LIMITED.
Wunderlich Metal Tile Roofing: Details and Fixing
Instructions [drop title]. Sydney, Wunderlich Limited, dated in
code 1950. Quarto, pp [4], photographic illustration and
diagrams; folded and holed for filing as issued, some use but
very good. $110
A very scarce promotional piece aimed at the tradesman or builder –
but very possibly also the home builder, at the time, of necessity, a
growing species. The puff is of interest in relation to post-war material
shortages exacerbated by the continuing building boom: “Developed to
relieve the acute Roofing shortage, and approved by the
Commonwealth Experimental Building Station, Wunderlich Metal Tile
is stamped from Sturdy 24 gauge Zincanneal to boldly simulate French
(Marseilles) Pattern Tiles…”.

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One of the iconic cover images from The Home by Hera Roberts and Adrian Feint "
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